No high-fives in Washington, despite budget deal
We have a budget.
President Obama signed the $1.1 trillion spending bill that funds the federal government through the end of September.
Cardiff Garcia, from the blog FT Alphaville, says in Marketplace’s Weekly Wrap segment:
“I just don’t think we should be high-fiving ourselves because Congress finally decided to do its job. …. We’re kind of holding the expectations bar really low, so it’s easy to step over. The size of this budget is smaller, if you adjust for inflation, than George W. Bush’s budget was six years ago. So if you, like me, think that Congress and the government and fiscal policy-makers haven’t done enough to support the economy this really isn’t that much to get excited about.”
And forget excitement over a budget deal. There’s another fiscal cloud on the horizon, according to Nela Richardson, from Bloomberg Goverment:
“They’re getting ready for the debt ceiling debate. … There are bigger fish to fry on the fiscal picture and they are going to fry them in February, when they can really hold the Treasury’s head underwater on this issue of the debt ceiling.”
Richardson says she thinks “it will all work out” with the debt ceiling because, as they say, the sequel is never as exciting as the original, “so maybe it won’t be as exciting this time around.”
Garcia and Richardson both say they are concerned about the failure to extend long-term unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans.
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